


Sand Gets Everywhere

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 22:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20496011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Okay, this might get rambly and long (and probably full of grammatical errors, and mostly theoretical head-cannon stuff), but i’ll do a TL:DR down at the bottom.Basically, I’ve seen a lot of prompts and posts and whatnot about Jack’s fear of drowning, of when he died. Which is great and heart-wrenching and all, and I do love it.But what I really want is Jack coming into those memories and not being hit with a fear of his death, but the fears he had while he was drowning. Because while he had just saved his sister from drowning he just left her there, alone, in the middle of the woods. What about the family he’s leaving behind. Will they be able to make do without him?...[cut for length]"What is with prompters wanting Jack’s human life to be excessively hard and miserable? Anyway, Jack does have the kind of freakout as described in the prompt, for the reasons described in the prompt (minus the bit about Bunny leading his sister home–a)Pooka are tricksters and b)I’m pretty sure the pond was in sight of the house) and the Guardians try to help out, but the real problem is…sand gets everywhere.





	Sand Gets Everywhere

**Author's Note:**

> Continued prompt: "...(Because maybe he has an aging father, maybe their family are the town outcasts, maybe they have no father at all, maybe it’s just Jack, and his mother -a mother that maybe, though she says nothing, gets weaker and weaker every year- to support their small family, to shepherd the sheep and harvest what meager crops they have.) After all keep in mind, that a young man Jack’s age would be working at that age. He would have many responsibilities. (And here he was, all these years fooling around when his family, his mother, his sister, could have been starving.)
> 
> Also, what if at the time of his death, before he woke, his sister (because she’s young, and frightened and she’s just lost her brother) maybe she’s frozen in place and help arrives in some form or another, but worse, she flees, gets lost, she doesn’t know her way home. And this is where Bunny comes in, because the true nature of a Pooka is one that leads the lost home. And this girl is so lost, distraught and is crying for her lost brother desperately. Calling for Jack, that he curses this person, who would be cruel enough to abandon a child in the woods alone. And maybe years later, when he first meets Jack Frost who’s mischief has led him from his job he thinks of that little girl those years ago. (And maybe he thinks, it’s this sprite, this trickster, this Jack that led that girl astray. For what? For Fun? He could have gotten her killed for his mischief.) And therefore, reason numero uno, for Bunny’s dislike of Jack. (Not that Jack helps by continuing to antagonize Bunny over the years.)
> 
> But when the memories come back, when they unfold. When he wonders and looks for what happened to the family he left behind, the story of his memories all that aid him and the possible help of the Guardians. Will Bunny come to an understanding about that girl from all those years ago? Will he tell Jack, who would be distraught over the idea that his sister might not even have made it home that day, that she’d gotten home safely? (Because maybe at the beginning the Guardians think Jack is having trouble over his remembered death, and try to help him without really understanding what the problem is until he gives in and tells them. (And maybe even Tooth helps by letting him see the memories in his sisters teeth.))
> 
> This has gotten kind of off track. (And what was I getting at?)
> 
> TL:DR. Basically, I want Jack to have a freak out, not about his death, but for the people he left behind. And Bunny/Guardians eventually help calm his ass down.
> 
> Sorry for the long and rambly?
> 
> ((And yes, JackRabbit is a thing I like.))"
> 
> Originally posted on Tumblr on 12/20/2016.

“It’s not my death that’s the problem!” Jack burst out. “I don’t act dead, do I? But what about my family? I left them behind! What happened to them? I don’t know, and I’ll never know, and it’s too late! The Man in the Moon—did he even think of the results of what he did? I mean, I know that back then, times were hard, I would have been already working to help my family, unless I was just too frivolous, joking around when I should have been helping with whatever little harvest there was, and of course we couldn’t rely on anyone else, I’m sure we had no community, in my memory my mom had short hair so we were probably outcasts for some reason, and in any case when I saved my sister then she was all alone in the woods, and she could immediately have gotten lost, and frozen, and, and died, and what was the Man in the Moon thinking, anyway? My mother and my sister probably _died_ because I wasn’t there—I mean, I didn’t see any father in my memories, and that was pretty necessary at that time, right?”  
  
Tooth quickly said something to one of her fairies and hurried over to Jack. She picked up his hand and squeezed it comfortingly. “Jack, Jack, just breathe, all right?” She glanced toward the other Guardians, confusion written all over her face. Bunny and North looked equally puzzled, though Sandy appeared thoughtful.  
  
“I don’t think we were trying to say that your death should be affecting you one way or another,” Bunny said carefully. “Because you’re right, you don’t act dead at all.”  
  
“We only thought you seemed to be having some troubles, and we wanted to give you time to talk about them if you wanted,” North said. “This was not what we expected.”  
  
“Because of course it’s my own death I should care about,” Jack said miserably.  
  
“No, that’s not it at all,” Bunny said. “I don’t think any of us have any notions of what you should care about regarding your past or your death. Unless, maybe, Sandy…” He turned to look at him.  
  
Sandy shook his head. _If something isn’t troubling you, Jack, don’t work to make it trouble you for our sakes. It sounds like you have enough troubles already._  
  
Tooth’s fairies return, then, carrying two tooth boxes. One is Jack’s, the other is a girl’s. “Is it the uncertainty about your family’s fate the worst of it?” Tooth asked. “I can activate your sister’s memories and you can see what happened to her.”  
  
“And just see all her misery? I don’t think—I don’t know if I’ll ever, ever be ready for that,” Jack said.  
  
Tooth drew her finger down the side of the tooth box. It didn’t seem to contain any more misery than average. “How about I look at her memories as well as yours, so I can…give you a summary version, so you know if you want to check or not?”  
  
“Well…if you want to,” Jack said, still looking miserable.  
  
“Right, I’ll do that,” Tooth said, and stepped away from the group towards the edge of the palace platform.  
  
Bunny moved forward and took his place at Jack’s side. “Look, I get that this is what you’re thinking about right now because it’s new to you, but, well….” Bunny made a face at himself and shook his head. “I don’t know what to say! But if it means anything, I wish I did. Cripes. You may not believe it, but I’m normally better at comforting people than this.”  
  
Sandy nodded, and North smiled a little. “Jack,” North said, “until you see the memories, you have no idea what happened after you drowned. But knowing you now, I do not think you would be to blame for anything bad happening to your family. You are good right down to your core—your center.”  
  
Jack raised his eyes, but only briefly, and he didn’t smile.  
  
Some long moments of silence passed before anyone moved. This time, it was Sandy, who stood up and walked directly up to Jack. _Something’s not right here,_ he signed. _You blamed the Man in the Moon for a lot in what you said, but the Man in the Moon didn’t make you drown. That was just an accident. Without the Man in the Moon, you’d just be dead. You still would have been gone from your family._  
  
“But…the Man in the Moon,” Jack said, then paused with a frown.  
  
“Jack?” Tooth said. “I’ve looked at the memories and even in just yours…your family spent a lot of time with other nearby families. I don’t know why you would think you were outcasts. And there’s a distinct memory of why your mother had short hair—she accidentally caught it in a candle while acting out a bedtime story for your sister, and the burned parts had to be cut off. Yes, your mother was a widow, but in Emma’s memories, she remarried. As for everything else…I mean, you were mourned, and life wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t any harder for your family than for other families of the time. And the oddest thing—it’s in your memory, clearly—that pond was in sight of your house. Emma wouldn’t—and didn’t—get lost at all running for help for you.”  
  
Jack rubbed his head as if he had a headache. “But…no,” he said. “She would have been…she would have been alone, and lost, and calling for help, and the woods would have been full of great, dark shapes….”  
  
_North, could I borrow your coat for a minute?_ Sandy asked, even as Tooth tried to explain that the woods around the pond were hardly dense enough to hide hordes of menacing wildlife.  
  
“Well, all right,” North said. “Though I cannot think that you are cold here.”  
  
Sandy accepted North’s coat without explaining anything further, then tugged sharply on Jack’s arm to get his attention. _Take off your clothes right now,_ he commanded, brandishing a dreamsand comb in Jack’s face.  
  
“What?” Jack yelped, his confusion replaced by shock.  
  
Sandy shook North’s coat at him. _And then drape this around yourself!_  
  
Jack looked around at the others.  
  
“I’d listen to him,” said Bunny, though he also sounded confused. “Especially since he thought far enough ahead to give you something else to cover up with.”  
  
Sandy rolled his eyes and shook the coat again.  
  
“Right, now what?” Jack asked a couple of minutes later, holding North’s coat tightly around him.   
  
_Simple,_ Sandy said, and completely buried Jack’s ordinary clothes in dreamsand. Jack wasn’t able to formulate a response before Sandy floated and climbed up North’s coat, sat on Jack’s shoulders, and began carefully combing his hair with a dreamsand comb.   
  
“What—ow—hey!” Jack said, unable to keep himself quite still as his wind-given tangles were smoothed out. Sandy ignored him and kept combing, nodding to himself as if this was just as he had expected. When he finished, he patted Jack’s head, and, with no further warning, directed a jet of dreamsand into North’s coat. Jack yelped and laughed as it twisted around his body, and when he was finally able to compose himself, he looked to be in a better mood than he had all that day. “Sandy—_what_ was that all about? Why….”  
  
Sandy turned away and fished Jack’s clothes out of the dreamsand, and shook them out. They still remained somewhat glittery. He looked pleased and tossed them to Jack. _Sand gets everywhere,_ he signed, as if this was a total explanation.  
  
“True…” Tooth said slowly.  
  
Sandy shook his head. _Ask Jack about his family again._  
  
“Um. All right.” She turned toward him. “After that, um, little interlude, do you feel any better? Do you feel up to seeing your sister’s memories? She really did end up all right, and safe.”  
  
Jack opened his mouth, then closed it. “You know,” he said slowly, “I do feel a lot better. I…everything you said earlier…I don’t know why I couldn’t believe it. Or why I forgot the most basic thing, like where the pond was. I mean, it’s bittersweet to find out I had a family, but to know I can never meet them because they lived so long ago, but like, compared with how I was feeling before…I don’t understand at all.”  
  
_Because sand gets everywhere,_ Sandy said again. _And not just my sand. And you don’t have a home where you can take baths, or any reason to take a bath anyway._  
  
“Aw, don’t call me out like this,” Jack said, embarrassed.  
  
Sandy smiled. _You still had some nightmaresand in your hair. Probably some on your clothes, and maybe on your body, too. It was making you fearful, and telling you all the most negative things were true, even if they didn’t make any sense. You were getting Pitch’s interpretation of your memories._  
  
Jack shivered. “So that’s why I was blaming the Man in the Moon for everything.” He took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay.” He looked up and around at the others. “It is still pretty disorienting to find out I was a human, and that I died young. Could we…could we maybe meet again in a couple days to talk about that? After I’ve been able to think about it without nightmaresand on me?”  
  
“Of course,” North said warmly. “And, if you need to, you can visit any of us if you need a place to wash off all the dreamsand.”  
  
“Thanks,” Jack said emphatically, but Sandy only smiled and shrugged, completely unrepentant. 


End file.
